The nearest-and-dearest scheme plans to show the family and friends of Games athletes how best to support them while they are competing. A 14-city roadshow will be staged by a sponsor, and the company will make sure that every athlete's mother will get a ticket to see their offspring in action.

A great result in the first day of the London 2012 archery test event at Lord's for South Korea's Im Dong-hyun as he broke his own 72-arrow world record. Im scored 693 in the ranking round, exceeding his previous best by two points, despite being legally blind. He relies on feel for his shooting, and can barely distinguish between the coloured rings on the target.

The Olympic Ball is being held on Friday night at Kensington Olympia in London. More than 100 Olympians will be present at the fund-rasing event, among them Britain's 1988 gold-winning men's hockey team – their first reunion since the Seoul Games.

Anti-doping experts say they need intelligence from service staff at the Olympic site to help track down people using performance-enhancing drugs. The 2012 medical-service team wants cleaners and security staff to report suspicious behaviour in time for its daily anti-doping "breakfast meetings".

A poem by Carol Ann Duffy is to go on display at Eton Manor in the Olympic Park, one of a number of scribes to have their work displayed at the Games. The poetry theme continues from earlier this year, when a line from Alfred Tennyson's Ulysses was chosen as the inscription for an installation in the centre of the Olympic Village.

The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, wants British holidaymakers to turn their backs on overseas holidays and head to the 2012 Games. The incentive is a hotel discount of … 20.12%. But Prestige Ticketing, the company which bought the hospitality packages for the Olympics, has sold only a third of its supply. Some have blamed this on cost – up to £4,500 a day at the Olympic Stadium. Others claim it is because this is the first Games to have on-site corporate hospitality.

Mo Farah's star continues to rise and he was this week named men's 2011 European Athlete of the Year by European Athletics. The 5,000m world champion was also shortlisted by the IAAF for World Athlete of the Year.

Cassie Patten, the 10km Open Water bronze medallist at Beijing, has retired. The Briton broke the news on Twitter and cited a shoulder injury, along with her disappointing qualification bid, as the main reasons behind the decision.